Bookies pay the penalty for World Cup refund offer

THE World Cup has been a major win-win competition for most bookmakers, but not for Paddy Power, which has scored a bit of an own-goal.

The chain has shot itself in the foot to the tune of €1 million because of a handicap it offered punters on penalty shoot-outs.

The chain promised to refund bets if teams were knocked out on penalties.

And Argentine and English flounderings in front of goal on Saturday have seen tens of thousands of punters collecting their original stakes. “We did this special offer, not realising the impact it could have,” Paddy Power explained last night. “We took thousands of bets on both Argentina and England — everything from €50 bets to €5 wagers. It’s costing us €1 million to refund.

“But we can’t complain. We made about €1 million when Portugal drew with England nil all,” he added.

With favourites Brazil and Argentina on their planes home, hosts Germany are now the bookies’ favourite at 13/8. France are second favourites at 15/8 while Italy are outsiders at 3/1 and Portugal the least-tipped to lift the World Cup at 6/1.

“Germany were 9/1 originally and quite a few people did take the bet. All the rumours at the start about the team being no good have proved to be just that, rumours. You’d have to fancy them.

“France too looked poor but have improved throughout the competition. The best result for us throughout the competition has been the England/Portugal draw on which we collected around €1 million. Not too many people will be sorry for us, having to pay back €1 million today,” he said.

And while David Beckham was crying into his porridge yesterday after stepping down as England captain, insisting he and his team gave it their all, punters are still wagering on the final result with the 32-nation competition now down to four sides.

Money is flooding in on predictions of who will be crowned player of the tournament. The tie at the top is a three-way one with Ballack, Klose and Zidane at 7/2 while Henry is 7/1 and Cannivarro 11-1